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After our four day visit to the former fishing village of Hellnar on Snaefellsnes Peninsula (West-Iceland), we are back online in Iceland’s largest city. We’re staying in the home of a family, the mother of which leads tours on glaciers for fun – when they have guests in their home, they just go on a trip. Posted some pictures to the right – click for the whole album. Kids will post something tonight.

We’re here in Iceland, and it’s Â₩€$0M€! The ocean is super blue, and there’s really cool caves, mountains, glaciers, and geomorphic designs made by water and lava. There is lots of sheep, but tons of them get out of they’re pastures and roam freely.

In this picture, you can see my grandpa on the rocks

We flew from Seattle to Reykjavik, and met my grandparents. From Reykjavik we all drove to this tiny town by the sea called Hellnar. We are all sharing a cozy little cabin that has a great view of the ocean.

While we were driving from Hellnar to Reykjavik, there were some strange and irritating things. There was an underwater tunnel that was 6 kilometers long and took 4 minuets and 53 seconds to drive through! And there is also a round-a-bout every 450 meters when you’re near cities. It’s quite annoying. On the way, we tried to listen to Icelandic radio. I found a hilarious station that has kids songs. Here’s a sample:

After Hellnar, we drove back to Reykjavik, where we stayed in a large comfortable house that had a very secret room. The entrance to the room was a wardrobe. And inside the wardrobe was the room. There was writing on the ceiling. And guess what it said!

We wandered around the Metro system yesterday and made a visit to the Eiffel Tower. Figuring out that long distance walking is going to be a challenge with the kids. After a couple of meals at streetside cafes, we changed things up and had a nice Thai dinner. Mornings so far are spent with dad running out for fresh croissants, pain au chocolat and les ouefs, and mom starting the homework. Math facts seem to be unpopular first thing in the morning, but we’re plowing through. Also using Khan Academy for some history lessons on the French Revolution – which is more than a refresher for me too.

This morning I woke up ran down the stairs and sat in the rocking chair waiting for my dad to come down as he hustled down I stood up and searched for the keys witch were on the table I tossed them up they landed in my hand as i walked over to get my coat and shoes to go to the cafe and market we sprinted to the other side of the street and found that the market was closed so we just went to the cafe and bought two chocolate croissant and one apple something then we slowly walked home early

Nous sommes maintenant à Paris! We recently flew from Reykjavik to Paris. I haven’t been feeling very good for lots of the time here. On our first day, we started our math. We got our new math books, and my dad got a program called ALEKS and they teach online math. Every morning so far we got pain au chocolat from a nearby pastry shop, and they are delicious! One day, when I was feeling better, we went out to see a small number of the many amazing things in Paris. We went in the Louvre (which was very crowded) and we saw the Mona Lisa and lots of other famous pieces of art. We also went to the Notre Dame, but we didn’t go inside. One of my favorite things was the Eiffel Tower, and part of my homework was to learn some facts about it.

Eiffel Tower Facts:

The Eiffel Tower is 1,063 feet tall. For some comparison, the Space Needle is 605 feet tall

It is named after the maker, Gustave Eiffel. Gustave also designed the inner structure of the Statue of Liberty

It was finished in 1889 for the 1889 World’s Fair

The Eiffel Tower weighs 10,000 tons

The Eiffel Tower made the USA jealous when they were making it, so America had the honor of making the elevators

It is painted with 60 tons of paint every seven years, and they can only use paintbrushes

It has both lifts and stairs. There is many different ways to get to each floor. To get to the first floor, you can take the lift, or climb 300 steps. To get to the second floor, you can take the lift all of the way, or climb 300 steps to the first floor, then take the lift, or take the lift to the first floor then climb 300 stairs to the second floor, or climb 600 steps. To get to the third floor, you could take the lift all of the way, or climb 600 steps to the second floor, then take the lift, or climb 300 steps to the first floor then take the lift the rest of the way.

Eiffel Tower Pictures (I didn’t take them):

Also while we were in Paris, we took a train to Versailles. I did a separate post on that.